“Elon Musk has put an end to his idea to take Tesla private, but still has a tough road ahead to meet profitability and production projections, especially as Tesla handles expected investigations and lawsuits stemming from Musk’s ridiculous ‘funding secured’ misadventure,” Therese Poletti writes for MarketWatch. “Apple, meanwhile, has billions in cash to burn, manufacturing prowess, obvious interests in entering the car market and finding new form factors beyond the smartphone — and the pull to tell Musk his services are no longer needed.”
“It is hard to believe anything that Musk says after the three weeks of absolute nonsense he just put investors through, to say nothing of his habit of failing to live up to promises,” Poletti writes. “Apple knows a little something about building a strong profit margin with a premium product sold through its own retail outlets, and could handle many of the other issues that will continue to beset Musk and Tesla. In his now legendary tearful interview with The New York Times, Musk admitted that Tesla has sought another executive to handle operations, and even said that ‘anyone who can do a better job’ could have the CEO role.”
“It will be hard, if not impossible, for Tesla and Musk to recruit an executive of that strength,” Poletti writes. “Apple, though, would be a big draw for such executives, especially if it convinced Musk to step aside.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple will buy Tesla for the same reason they bought Palm.
If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas. – Don Meredith
SEE ALSO:
Apple + Tesla is a fairy tale with a twist – August 27, 2018
Could Apple make a play for Tesla? – August 24, 2018
Apple hired scores of ex-Tesla employees this year, and not just for its car project – August 24, 2018
Why Apple should acquire Tesla – August 21, 2018
Tesla sinks on concerns over CEO Elon Musk’s erratic behavior – August 17, 2018
Doug Field, former Tesla engineering chief, returns to Apple – August 10, 2018
Simply, NO.
But think how THIN they could make the Tesla!
No
No.
But, getting rid of Musk would be like Apple getting rid of Jobs. Love him or hate him, I think that Tesla will certainly fail without Musk to push them forward. There’s a reason that no new American auto company has been born and succeeded post-WWII, and though GM and Ford might not be as powerful as they once were, they will do everything in their power to destroy Tesla. Extra-American auto companies, too.
I don’t think this is a fair comparison to Palm — unless of course Apple is farther ahead in general design beyond software than I’m inclined to believe. What I mean is that Apple knew how to make computer hardware and innovated in that area to simply not need anything from Palm. In this case, Tesla has essentially fully finished products that go beyond software. I am not smart enough to know if it would be a move Apple would make . . . but if you could get all that IP for pennies on the dollar it might make sense in this case. Maybe Apple’s software is far superior (I’d be inclined to hope so) but I think Tesla has more value to an Apple car than Palm had to an Apple phone (which was close to zero).
The main interest would be to use Tesla’s supercharger infrastructure, this would avoid the hen/egg problem.
Didn’t the earlier article say that at last count they’d take over 40 employees from Tesla? They are buying Tesla. One person at a time.
So who do we want running Tesla?
1. The guy who lands rocket boosters when nobody else can, built the only spacecraft that can take supplies to and from the ISS, and whose spacecraft may finally give the USA the ability to launch astronauts into space after the longest time ever without a manned launch?
Or….
2. The guy whose main achievement is to build a REALLY BIG and FANCY headquarters building?
Jobs does not run Apple anymore. Do you really want Cook running Telsa?
Please tell me this is a joke.
Yeah, finally some sane words…Musk also created the Hyperloop specs and will most likely be the first ever to land a person in Mars – even before NASA.
Remember that he is also lead designer in SpaceX, not just some CEO who oversees stuff. The most challenging tasks eventually comes to his desk. He has pushed other car manufacturers to enter the electrification era much more quickly. He is a worthy heir to Steve Jobs as the greatest entrepreneur in this century so far, it’s not even a close contest.
That said, he has his shortcomings. He is not a business nor an operational genius. He is also a workaholic that takes on new projects constantly (like The Boring Company) and is unable or unwilling to delegate responsibilities to other people. This can not continue decade after decade without eventual problems in mental and physical health, he should realize that before something really bad happens. Tesla absolutely needs a good COO ASAP to free up some of Elon’s time.
Tesla without Elon Musk? Please…whoever says that must really be smoking something. There is a not a soul on this planet who could do the job better.
except Apple lacks vision and is not particularly good at finishing what it starts either
It would be awesome to see how thin they could make a Tesla. And how many dongles would be required to charge the battery?
And then Elon Musk becomes iCEO.
If they bought Tesla two big ifs. What happens to Project Titan and the egos at Apple may have a hard time with Elon onboard, particularly Cook …